Those early predictions from the bookies have been substantiated by hard evidence from Spotify, who have reported that Sheeran’s new album broke streaming records on its first day.

According to the streaming service, ‘÷’ clocked up 56,727,861 streams on Friday – smashing the previous record held by The Weeknd with his recent album, ‘Starboy’ (which generated 29 million streams). Sheeran has also beaten his own record for the song with the most amount of one-day streams, with his January single ‘Shape of You’ pulling in 10,123,630 plays on Friday – beating the song’s existing one-day record of 7,940,950 streams.

“She’s the only person I need to sell more records than,” he told GQ. “That’s a big fucking feat because her last album sold 20 million. But if I don’t set her as the benchmark then I’m selling myself short.”

Sheeran will set out on a UK tour in March. See his live schedule below, and buy tickets here.